MARCH 2018• COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


Sensors help nurseries cut water use up to 60% Better use of water resources benefits everyone, from growers to plants


by MYRNA STARK LEADER ABBOTSFORD – Ted van der


Gulik says nursery and greenhouse growers have the potential to cut their irrigation water use in half. Research findings from a


two-year project conducted in 2016 and 2017 saw soil moisture sensors placed in different nurseries and in different locations within the nurseries to determine when irrigation was required. “I worked in irrigation my


whole life and the results in this project were very surprising,” says van der Gulik, who retired from the BC Ministry of Agriculture in 2014 after achieving an international reputation for his work in agricultural water management. Now an independent consultant and president of the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC and certification board chair for the Irrigation Industry Association of BC, van der Gulik says monitoring irrigation water matters for three reasons. First, water supplies are typically diminish during


against a control site operated by nursery staff. Van der Gulik notes a lot of technology is changing quickly and he expects systems will continue to improve. Alberto Reinoso, an assistant grower at Van Belle Nursery in Abbotsford, helped manage the project at his site. Van Belle irrigates with water from a nearby creek. It participated because it expects limits on future water supplies. After seeing results in 2016 experiments, Van Belle extended the project into 2017. It used a clock-system, weather forecasts and human experience to determine irrigation requirements until it installed soil sensors that measured moisture levels in the growing substrate in real time.


Growers tend to apply more water than necessary, according to Ted van der Gulik. TED VAN DER GULIK PHOTO


the growing season. Second, this is also when plants are under the most stress. Finally, there’s a belief that the climate is getting dryer. By monitoring soil water levels, a grower can tailor irrigation to when it’s most needed and control how much a plant receives. During the experiment, growers thought more was better, something van der Gulik says is a common belief.


“I wanted the sensors set to 24% but the growers


moved it up to 35%,” he says. “I set it to water for five minutes. The growers moved it to 10,” van der Gulik


reported at the Pacific Agriculture Show in Abbotsford at the end of January. But using the settings van der Gulik designated, the sensors allowed total water savings in 2016 and 2017 of up to 60% with no change in plant quality. “If you are short of water and you can save half the water, that’s really, really big!” he says. Sensor control systems aren’t cheap. Van der Gulik estimated the cost at $30,000 for controls, sensors and installation. With water and labour savings pegged at approximately $5,000 a year, the payback window is five to seven years on a four- hectare nursery. This is enough to make it worth pursuing, he says. This project used a wireless sensor network in


one greenhouse, along with Decagon sensors and an Argus automated control system. This was tested


Reinoso says Van Belle was


very surprised with the results.


“According to the experiments, we used less water and the plants didn’t have a big difference,” he says. As a result, Van Belle has installed sensors in the biggest and more important areas in the centre of the nursery. It will rely on them for water management data and to schedule irrigation when the sensors say it’s necessary. Van Belle also changed sprinkler heads, moving from 60% to 70% efficiency to 90% efficiency. Van der Gulik is happy with results like this but


says there’s always more work to be done. “The bigger concern for the nursery industry is what happens with the overwater water, because nurseries aren’t necessarily recirculating or capturing the water,” he says. “But if you’re not doing that, I don’t think it’s sustainable.”


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